SEOUL – SK Lubricants plans to double its current 1.4 million metric tons per year API Group III base oil capacity by 2014 via a new plant in Asia next year, debottlenecking at its South Korea plant, and a joint venture with Repsol in Spain. SK Lubricants is currently building another 11,000 barrels per day Group III plant located in Asia, Kwan Ho Choi, SK Lubricants CEO and president, said at the ICIS Asian Base Oils & Lubricants Conference here June 14. Choi said that by 2014, SKs ...

Lubrizol Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Stephen Kirk, 61,and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Charles Cooley, 55,will retire within a few weeks of the closing of Berkshire Hathaways $9.7 billion acquisition of the additive giant. Lubrizol announced the retirements in a June 20 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, adding that Brian A. Valentine, 41, Lubrizols treasurer since 2009, will become chief financial officer on Cooleys retirement. No replacement ...

Lukoil recently opened a 30,000 metric ton per year lubricant blending plant in Ploiesti, Romania. The Russian oil major plans to use the facility as a platform to supply lubes in the European Union. The plant, which opened in March, is located at the Petrotel-Lukoil refinery, operated by Lukoils wholly owned Romanian subsidiary. Lukoil officials said the location is strategically advantageous. We are now sending lubricants not only to Russia, not only to Commonwealth of Independent States cou...

Theres a quality problem in the industry, and executives with some of the industrys most respected companies have agreed to help Tom Glenns Petroleum Quality Institute of America try to fix it. Two-year-old PQIA, founded and headed by Thomas F. Glenn, promotes lubricant quality in the U.S. marketplace by collecting and testing motor oil samples, and publishing the results at its web site for all to see. Last week PQIA announced the formation of an advisory board that includes executives with oi...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Lukoil, Russias largest independently owned refiner and blender, and Sovkomflot, the countrys biggest shipping company, signed a marine lubricants procurement contract last week. The deal was sealed here last Thursday by Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov and SovkomflotGeneral DirectorSergey Frank, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Lukoil will supply to the shipping company more than 20,000 tons of 67 different types and brands of marine lubric...

U.S. markets remain weak through tonnage oversupply. European coastal routes have picked up slightly but remain flat for long-haul business. Asian coastal routes are slightly busier, and deep-sea routes are tight and freights firm. U.S. Gulf of Mexico The chronic backlog of tonnage in the U.S. Gulf has caused a reduction of freights on several routes. Transatlantic eastbound is one of the main arteries where numbers have dropped further. It is now possible to obtain freights in the high $40s/...